From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Subject: Wrestling Tidbits - 03/15 Keywords: WWF,NWA,Wrestling Message-ID: <35250@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: 15 Mar 90 14:24:51 GMT Sender: daemon@watmath.waterloo.edu Distribution: rec Lines: 144 Posted: Thu Mar 15 15:24:51 1990 - WWF superstar Rick Rude was injured last week in a car accident in Florida. The mishap was severe enough that Rude has sought neurological help. This places some serious doubts on the availability of Rude whe WrestleMania VI rolls around shortly. He's scheduled to take on Jimmy Snuka. - Rumours are strong that the SheepWhackers are out of the WWF. This seems to be supported by their absence at WrestleMania VI. - Rumours have the Rockers staying in the WWF, but not as a team. Marty Janetty is supposed to be turning heel. - Remember the match on the live Main Event pitting the Ultimate Warrior against Dino Bravo, with Hogan doing a run-in to save the Warrior from the Earthquake? Well, I guess Vince really liked that angle, 'cause he seemed to re-use it verbatim on the Superstars of Wrestling this weekend with Hogan and Warrior switching roles. Hogan scored the pin on Bravo in typical fashion: hulk out, wag the finger, stop shaking, block a punch, three punches, foot-to-the-face, leg-drop, pin. Then the Earthquake entered the ring and tried to do a number on Hogan. The Warrior ran in for the save. When the ring cleared, the Warrior checked on Hogan, who pushed him away. So what's a boy to do? Why, run madly against the ropes of course! After running around a bit, the Warrior just managed to stop short of clotheslining Hogan (accidentally). Instead, he turned and ran, disappearing "just as suddenly as he appeared," said Vince. Oh well, at least Hogan didn't rip off Jimmy Hart's pants underneath the ring. ;-) - Danny Spivey has indeed been canned by the NWA after missing several tapings. He's supposedly heading for Japan for a short stint. Rumours have the SkyScrapers re-uniting in the WWF later in April, when Sid Vicious should have recovered from his punctured lung. - The Powers of Pain question has been cleared up. It seems that the Barbarian has joined up with Bobby Heenan and the Warlord has joined up with Slick. This leaves Mr. Fuji free to deal with the Orient Express. - For summary's sake, here's the full list of the 14 bouts at WrestleMania VI, ordered from most boring to least boring (notice that none are particularly interesting...): 1. Rick Rude vs. Jimmy Snuka } 2. Jim Duggan vs. Dino Bravo } 3. Rick Martel vs. Koko B. Ware } - Who really cares? 4. Earthquake vs. Hercules } 5. Tito Santana vs. Barbarian } 6. Hart Foundation vs. Bolsheviks - On a positive note, the Hart Foundation announced title intentions this weekend. They've challenged the champs, whoever they may be, after WM VI. 7. Roddy Piper vs. Bad News Brown - This might actually be a good brawl, but Piper deserves better. He's rumoured to be leaving after WM VI anyways. 8. Akeem vs. Big Boss Man - It will be interesting to see if the face BBM angle goes over. 9. Curt Hennig vs. Brutus Beefcake - Hennig is my early pick for new Intercontinental champion should the Warrior beat Hogan. 10. Ted DiBiase vs. Jake Roberts - Maybe the $1 million dollar belt will get destroyed and Ted will remember he's a wrestler. 11. Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire vs. Randy Savage & Sherri Martel - Only rated so high because I like Savage & Sherri and really dislike Dusty & Sapphire. 12. Andre & Haku vs. Demolition - Will Andre live through the match? Will Demolition really win the belts for the third time? 13. Orient Express vs. Rockers - If the Rockers actually make it to the event, maybe this will be the sight of a Jannetty heel turn. In any case, this match is guaranteed to have the best action of the event. I'm quite curious to see how the crowd reacts to Tanaka & Sato. 14. Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior - Despite the fact that I don't understand either of these guys during interviews, I'm kinda interested to see just what angle Vince decides to play out. - The WrestleMania celebrity list is starting to be announced. So far the participation of Rona Barrett, Steve Allen, and Robert Goulet has been announced. Rumours have Miami Sound Machine joining in on the lucrative fun. - As part of the WrestleMania VI Festival, there will be a 5K run and a kids 1-mile fun run on Saturday, March 31st in Toronto. The runs begin at 9:00am and 9:05am respectively and the awards ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10:00am. Of course the burning question is: Will Mr. Fuji repeat his performance from last year and run the 5K in his tuxedo? ;-) The announcement also says that WWF superstars will be on hand as honourary marshalls and to present awards. All finishers receive a certificate and all participants receive a muscle shirt. Pre-entry cost is $10, with race day entry being $15, for the 5K run. The proceeds of the fun run go to Variety Village. Also, a group of WWF wrestlers will be making a special appearance at Lawrence Square Mall on March 31st to charge for photo opportunities. - CNWA mat report: First off, some interesting things were mentioned in passing this week. It seems there going to be quite a few titles up for grabs in the CNWA. There seems to be three weight classes: light heavyweight, mid heavyweight, and heavyweight; each will have a champion. Then there's the tag championship and a woman's title. This might get interesting. It was also mentioned that the 7'4" Canadian Giant, all 480 pounds of him, will be coming in from Japan shortly. Highlights from this week's show include some unintentional juice, or so I gathered, from light heavyweight Brad Young. During his interview spot, Brad was confronted by Goldie Rogers, who began slapping him around. I suspect that Goldie misfired a slap, since Brad ended up with a broken nose in a pool of blood. Also of note is the return of veteran announcer Ed Whalen. Ed has been travelling with the NHL recently, but finally finished with those commitments. The feature match was to be Steve DiSalvo vs. Bob Brown, but Bob came out with a supposedly broken arm so his son Kerry took his place. Kerry actually had the upper hand for a bit, using a foreign object against DiSalvo. Steve finally rallied and beat the stuffing out of Kerry. In the end, Bob entered the ring and used his cast on DiSalvo, giving us some more juice. Of course Kerry was DQ'ed. Next week, we have a handicap match scheduled between DiSalvo and both Browns. - Rumours persist that Ric Flair will be retiring from the NWA shortly. He's already given up his job as booker for the organization and word is strong that he'll drop the NWA strap to Lex Luger in April. Hand in hand with retirement rumours come "I'll bet he'll join the WWF" rumours. - Also, we can pretty much expect Hulk Hogan to drop his WWF strap to the Ultimate Warrior at WM VI. Hogan is expected to bow out of the mat wars quite graciously. He's already signed to start filming a movie shortly after WM, so we can expect him to be gone for at least 6 months. Ditto for Roddy Piper. - Paul E. Dangerously is rumoured to be heading to the WWF shortly after WM. - NWA announcer Joe Pedicino, the Round Mound of Sound who left the NWA because he feared becoming a heel announcer would damage his lucrative real estate business in Atlanta, is rumoured to be heading to the ICW. Herb... *********************************************************************** * Herb Kunze * "Whether you like it or not, * * Applied Math Department * learn to live with it, 'cause * * University of Waterloo * It's the best thing going today!" * * hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu * - Ric 'Nature Boy' Flair * ***********************************************************************